1945 Walking Half Initials - Are weak initials considered missing?

[Rick Sapp]

Hello folks. Another educational opportunity for the newbie... So in 1945 the mint produced a Walking Liberty Half Dollar without designers initials on the reverse. Are weak initials considered missing initials? Here are a couple pictures of what I recently found. The condition of the half I have is G4-G6, but I have to get REAL close to see the impression of the "A" (above the dark dot in the top image). The "W" is almost non-existant. Most of the examples I find online are not super close so I was hoping someone could enlighten me.
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Anyway, I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Thanks
Rick

[MintErrors]

Weak initials are just that. The problem with this issue is they fade with wear. The letters themselves are pretty small. They can easily be filled with small fragments of debris from the hundreds of thousands of planchets that are struck by each pair of working dies.

In my opinion :

It could also be a grease filled issue, but again, the only way to prove this is by being able to identify some blotchy style patterns around the affected area.

I do not believe a third party grading service will recognize too many missing designers initials, because every working die starts out with them. It's more of a novelty issue than one to get rich off of.

I think it was 1969, a year where some people claimed working dies didn't have designers initials, and even had the Memorial Building with a floating roof. The floating roof was no more than an overzealous mint worker polishing the die with practically erased the single line connecting the design together.

Again as for designers initials on the 1969 cent, they could have too been subjected to debris, grease or other material or issues, like that over zealous mint worker.

Happy hunting.

[Rick Sapp]

Kinda what I thought. Thanks for the info. Back in the silver stack with this one.....